Personalized print jobs contain both variable and reusable types of data. Variable data is typically printed on a form that remains static from page to page while the variable data itself is different on each form. Reusable data (reusable document components, or RDCs) appears multiple times within the same page, on different pages of the same job, or between different jobs.
A form, for instance, in a variable data job is considered to be a RDC. A form is also referred to as a reusable underlay (RUL) given the attribute that it matches the size of the page to be printed. The form is static because it is printed each time a completed form is printed. However, the information entered into the electronic form is variable content, which will typically differ for each person's completed form. Another example of a print job containing a mixture of variable and static content is a business letter with a standardized letterhead that is printed as part of the letter. The letterhead is static content across business letters, whereas the text of each letter is variable content. Similarly, in high print volume personalized advertising for mailing to customers or other large groups, the basic content is static while certain portions of the advertising are personalized based on information extracted from a customer database.
If cached, the cached RDCs will be used rather than re-rendering the component for the page. A given page can have more than one RDC placed on it. Pages that have multiple RDCs currently require each RDC retrieved from the cache and merged to construct the page output. Merging the multiple RDCs along with the non-cached elements of the page is time consuming and lowers the page per minute throughput of the print path.
What is needed in the art is a system and method that renders and caches composite RDCs and composite RULs as they are interpreted for pages of a job.